This walkthrough builds on steps taken in the previous exercise. Make sure you do it first – and if you have executed any of those steps differently, you might need to adjust how you carry these steps out.

So to get started you should already have Views installed (and the Views UI submodule), but if you don't – do it first.

The Views Interface – setting up an 'employment history' view for your CV page

First we will set up a view to display your employment history.

  • Navigate to Structure >> Views. Click on '+Add new view'

Screen_Shot_2012-01-25_at_11.16.png

You will be bounced to the above page – this is the view pre-setup page.

  • Name the view 'Employment History' and click on 'Create a block' (rather than page) and change the Display format to 'Unformatted list' of 'titles' and then click on 'Continue & edit'
Screen_Shot_2012-01-25_at_11.20.png

This is the view interface – it is intimidating at first but using it will be second nature within a few weeks. In the simplest terms possible the 'Format' section allows us to set the type and nature of the view, the 'Fields' area allows us to pick which fields from a content type will appear (if Format >> Show is set to nodes then entire nodes render). The 'Field Criteria' lets us set rules to say what content does or does not appear (e.g. all content of types employment), 'Sort Criteria' determines how the view is arranged (chronological, alphabetical, etc.), and then 'Block Settings'

let us tweak the block, determine if it has a header or footer and set up a pager if need be. Ok, so... let's get started with an Employment block.

  1. First off, set 'Format' from 'Unformatted list' to 'HTML list' (ignore all the configuration options in the popup and just click on 'Apply (all displays)'
  2. Make sure that 'filter Criteria' is set to show content of type 'Employment' (see above screenshot) and 'Sort Criteria' is set to 'Content: Post date (desc)' (reverse chronologically) our view already kind of makes sense. If you look down at the bottom of the interface, a rendered preview should be visible. Click on 'Save' in the top right corner and your view block is ready to place on your CV page.

Placing your Block on your CV Page

  1. Navigate to your CV page and note what node # it is according to the address bar (it will be something like node/5)
  2. Navigate to Structure >> Blocks and scroll down to the bottom of the page. You should see a 'View: Employment History' block, and click on 'configure'
  3. You could override the name in the 'Block Title' field, otherwise it will just be named after the view. In 'Region Settings' set '960 Grid System' set the view to appear in 'Content'
  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and set the view to only appear on the node of your CV page (e.g. node/5) Click on 'Save' and navigate to your CV page.

Screen_Shot_2012-01-25_at_11.42.png

You should see something like this – congrats, you've made your first view! Now, let's make the view a little more informative.

  1. Navigate to Structure >> Views, and edit the 'Employment History' view.
  2. Under 'Fields', click on 'add', and set the dropdown menu titled 'filter' to 'Content'.
  3. Tick off 'Content: Objective', 'Content: Date' and 'Content: Position' and hit 'Apply (all displays)'
  4. A configuration screen will open up for 'Content: Body' – untick 'Create a label' and hit 'Apply (all displays)'
  5. A configuration screen will open up for 'Content: Date' – untick 'Create a label' and set 'Choose how users view dates and times' to 'Short' and click on 'Apply (all displays)'
  6. A configuration screen will open up for 'Content: Position' – untick 'Create a label' and hit 'Apply (all displays)'
  7. Now back on the view configuration screen, you'll see how the view has evolved (in the preview at the bottom). Let's make it a little more logical...
  8. In 'Fields' click on the little arrow to the right of 'add' and select 'rearrange' – change the order to TItle, Position, Date, Body and then click on 'Apply (all displays)'
  9. Next, we (presumably) don't want our users to be able to click to the node view of an individual job – so click on 'Content: Title' under 'Fields'. Now, we can turn off these links by clicking on 'Link this field to the original piece of content'. Click on 'Apply (all displays)'
  10. Click on 'Save' and navigate back to your CV page to check out your progress.

Screen_Shot_2012-01-25_at_11.59.png

This is what my Employment History looks like now and yours should look similar.

So, you are on your way to sorting out your CV. Now, to move forward...

  1. Create a view for your Education history and place it on your CV page.
  2. Experiment with other views for Education History and Employment History (edit the view in question and select 'Format' and 'Settings' under 'Format') – try seeing the difference in how unformatted lists, grids and tables render. This is an important step – so spend at least 15-20 minutes in seeing what the options are here. Any additional views module you install (e.g. Views Accordion, Views Slideshow, FlexSlider, etc.) will show up as options in 'Format'.
  3. How can the regions within this theme lend themselves to a unique layout? Experiment by moving the blocks around to see what your options are.
  4. Start thinking about what other information you might put on your CV page – how could you make a CV unique or personal? What aspects of your experience can you include beyond the suggested starting points with these tutorials.
  5. Start playing around with the CSS on the 960 Grid Them – obviously you'll need to wrap up what information is on the page before you can make any substantial progress, but you can at least get a feel for the theme and implement some rudimentary colour/type design elements. If you don't know where to start, start with the type.
  6. You'll probably want to remove the background grid, you also might think about what other material you might remove from your CV page. Given you are only being evaluated on the single page (it isn't a full-on website yet, right?). Do you need the navgiation? the login block? the 'powered by drupal' footer? Probably not. Clean up any clutter as it will help you get started in determining your CV design.
  7. Thanks to a tutorial contributed by Jonathan Callan – there is now a walkthrough available for changing your date formats. So you could make them vary (e.g. Thurs. July 19th ,2012 vs. 12/07/09). The question here: what is the logical way for the date to appear on your CV?